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Anyone here making their own instrument and patch cables.  I've been reading various boards and blogs on the topic of cables and their effect on tone.  I have to admit, I've gone pretty far down the rabbit hole.  If you believe half of what you read, you absolutely have to have Van den hul cables for your entire chain.  You should also not complain that your new cables cost more then your amp and all the boxes on your board combined.  After all, you can puff your chest out for days on the gear page   If you can't tell, I'm pretty sceptical.  That being said, I do believe based on experience, that some cables to do sound noticeably better then others.  Especially if you have more then one or two effects in your chain. 

So, I'm wondering if any of you DIY types are building your own cables to go along with your roll your own boxes.  If so, what are you using, other then solderless?  I have an acquaintance that swears by Lava cables.  You can get the small diameter Lava cable for pedal boards for about $1.90 per foot.  I think I'm going to buy about 20 feet, and enough Neutrik plugs to re-do my board.  I haven't been able to find their regular instrument cable in bulk, however.

Anyone have any suggestions for high quality instrument cable for the DIY'er?

I have never been happy with my Dunlop wah, so I can't say that I'm really upset.  I rarely play it, but every now and then I get the itch.  It worked the last time I plugged into it, and nothing has been done to it in the interim.  It just decided it was done I guess.

It passes signal when not engaged, but no signal when engaged.  I just checked continuity quickly yesterday, and it seems to have continuity where I would expect it (no obvious breaks in circuit path at first blush).

So the question is, should I try to fix a wah I've never really cared for, or use the parts to build up a custom wah?  Next question.  If I wanted to build my own, does anyone have any suggestions or links to boards or layouts?  I was thinking i'd like to do a Perf board version with clips or turrets.

Hey all,

I'm hoping someone can help me understand what is up with a voodoo labs analog chorus that I have on my board.  As I understand it, the VL analog chorus is a copy of the Boss CE-2.  I like it, and would use it more but It has an interesting issue.  With some guitars it is nearly unity gain when kicked on, with others it is not. 

With my Les Paul (vintage PAF output Lollar imperial pick-ups) running behind my OD pedals on the board, it is a little hotter then unity but close enough to use.  With my Tele (a stock original 58 tele) output is lower than unity.  It's enough lower that it is really annoying.  I have a Strat with vintage SC pickups in Neck and Middle and a Seymour Duncan Hot rails in the bridge.  With that guitar, the chorus is WAY hotter then unity with all pickups.  It is such a jump that it is not usable with that guitar.  Also, when I try to use it with my accoustic with LR Baggs dual source run through an LR Baggs DI and pre-amp with the chorus in the effects loop, it drops the level significantly. 

I don't understand how, with one guitar it is dropping the level and on another it's like a 15 db boost.  Any ideas?  Is there anything I can do to fix this issue?

Who here uses loopers on their board?  What do you think of them as a tool for preserving your base amp tone? 

I have been toying with the idea of buying or building one to see if I like them.  Right now, I run fairly minimal effects.  True bypass tuner into a ts9 into a Muff style distortion, into an analog chorus into an analog delay, then to the amp.  Soon, I will be adding a digital delay, a reverb, and probably a volume pedal.  Additionally I'm going to be adding 3 or 4 Madbean projects to my board to replace my current OD and distortion (but they probably won't all live there at the same time).

So, what do you think?  Is a looper worth a build?  Does anyone have a link or info they'd be willing to share on a looper build?  Many thanks in advance

For those that have built the Neutrino or played an Eternity, what's the attraction?  I've been reading up on several of the commercial versions of the overdrive/distortion pedals offered as projects here.  After watching a bunch of videos on the Eternity, I've yet to see one that sounds decent.  I'm not trying to offend anyone with this, I'm just curious.  I know YouTube compresses the crap out sound files, so it's not the best medium for judging the nuances of an amp or a pedal, but the Eternity clips really don't sound very good to me.  They come across as a pretty generic Tubescreamer with a really nasty high end.

The Dirty Little Secret, on the other hand, sounds really good to me.  I was also really underwhelmed by what I saw of the Cornish G2. 

Anywho, I'm trying to come up with a short list of OD's I want build in the near future, and was pretty sure I'd build a Neutrino.  Now, I'm thinking maybe not.

I have been an effects minimalist for a long time.  I'd like to say that I have a more refined sense of tone then your average effects junky, but the truth is I've always had a hard time figuring out how to make effects sound like I know they should.  I do know that some pedals sound better with certain types of amps, and some sound better with single coils others with humbuckers.

I know the ts9 is old hat and frowned upon by all boutique tone snobs errrr gurus errrrr ok snobs.  However, I dusted off my old ts9 today and plugged into a 5e3 deluxe and it was a smoking combination with my Tele on both the neck and bridge, just a great combination of guitar, effect and amp.

So I'm curious.  Which combination of guitar, effect, amp, really does it for you all, and why?  I had a really good experience today with my Tele, into the ts9, into a Voodoo lab analog chorus, into a pink Ibanez analog delay.  All combinations of these pedals sounded fabulous into the tweed Fender.  On the other hand, I have an AC15 and 18 watt Marshall that don't like the ts9 much at all.  Also, I never play my humbucker or p90 equipped guitars through the ts9 at all; mid HUMP all the way, and not a good combination. 

So what's your secret recipe?

Just curious, how many overdrive pedals have people built, and/or own?  The next question, is how many do you actually use?  I'm coming off a period where I've used only amp overdrive.  I haven't used an OD pedal in about 4 years, though sometimes I use a Dallas Rangemaster clone with my AC15.  I'm now needing to use more effects and my amps are all old school non master volume, no effects loop, type amps.  So, I'm backing off the amp volume to clean the amps up so they will sound good with delay, modulation, reverb etc.  I'm needing some OD pedals for the first time in years. 

So, how many does a guy need?  Kind of a dumb question because the answer is usually "just one more".........

Hey all,

This will be my first DIY effects pedal.  I've built a few tube amps, so I know which end of a soldering iron gets hot.  However, I've never soldered a PCB and i've never put anything together that is as closely packed as a pedal circuit.  So my first consideration is to start relatively simple (I need a good overdrive and a good distortion so I thought i'd start with one of each).

Second consideration, I am going to be building several pedals for use on my own gigging pedal board, and I would like effects that work and sound good with both single coils and humbuckers. 

So, I'm thinking of building a Serendipity and a Neutrino.  After that I'm thinking of trying a Darkside and/or a Mudbunny.

Anybody have any thoughts on these circuits.  I haven't played any of the commercial versions of these circuits, so I am hoping someone might chime in on them or with other suggestions.  I really want to try the combination of the G2 errr Darkside with the Serndiptiy or Neutrino because I'm after a good Gilmourish tone but I won't actually know until I try.

Hey all,

This is my first post here.  Pedal building is a new thing for me, so I have a few (very noobish stupid questions).  I stumbled into this site because I am looking at re-vamping my pedal board, and can't bring myself to pay the absolutely stupid prices that great marketing and the Gear Page have created.  Anyway, I digress.  I've never built a pedal before.  I've built three amps, a tweed deluxe clone, a tweaked 5e5a pro, and a clone of a Trainwreck Rocket.  I've sourced parts from Mouser, Newark, Digikey and a few others for my amp builds.  My experience is that no single source ever has everything you need, so you end paying shipping to about three different sources for each project.  While this is costly, it still makes sense on an amp which is worth $800 to $1,500 when you're done. 

I am having the same issue sourcing parts for some of the simplest pedals, the boards of which are offered here.  If I end up paying $40 to $60 in shipping for parts, I'm going to have to build a number of pedals to defray that cost.  Not that this would be a bad thing.  I want to build several pedals, but I'm wondering if anyone has some wisdom on how to start.